Mitch McConnell's Kentucky: another red state failure

While Mitch McConnell and Congressional Republicans threaten the US with default on its debt, his home State of Kentucky suffers from some of the highest poverty and unemployment and some of the worst public health and environmental problems in the country. McConnell's Kentucky is not a vision for the rest of America most of us want to see.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

While Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell fights Obamacare, environmental regulations and the EPA, his home state of Kentucky ranks 7th out of the 50 states for cervical cancer rates. At a rate of 9 cases out of every 100,000 women. (Source: U.S. Center for Disease Control)

On top of that shocking statistic, the DEATH RATE for Kentucky's women from cancer of the cervix is the 3rd highest in the nation after Mississippi and West Virginia, and tied with Arkansas and Louisiana. (Source: National Cancer Institute)

According to the Kaiser Family foundation, "Nearly all cervical cancer is caused by 10 to 15 high-risk types of a common sexually transmitted virus called the human papillomavirus (HPV)."

Perhaps Mitch McConnell and the rest of Kentucky's political leadership could learn something from Rick Perry's Texas when it comes to fighting cervical cancer.

In light of the recent Republican debate over public HPV vaccination programs, it is interesting that Rick Perry's Texas which has a much higher rate of cervical cancer cases (9.7 out of 100,000 or No.2 out of the 50 states) has obviously made some progress in fighting this life threatening disease.

WASHINGTON — On the Senate floor and the television airwaves, Senator Mitch McConnell has lambasted the Obama administration over what he has described as its failed efforts to stimulate new jobs through clean-energy projects backed with billions of dollars in federal loans or other assistance.

But Mr. McConnell, of Kentucky, is one of several prominent Republicans who have worked to steer federal money to clean-energy projects in their home states, Energy Department documents show.

Mr. McConnell made two personal appeals in 2009, asking Energy Secretary Steven Chu to approve as much as $235 million in federal loans for a plant to build electric vehicles in Franklin, Ky.

“I hope you will realize the importance of such job creation to Kentucky,” Mr. McConnell said in a July 2009 memo supporting an application from Zap Motor Manufacturing.

Federal lobbying disclosure records show that Mr. McConnell’s support for the project came after Zap Motor hired a Kentucky-based lobbyist, Robert Babbage, who has been a frequent contributor to Mr. McConnell’s campaigns and boasts on his own Internet site about his close ties to Mr. McConnell.

Yesterday, ThinkProgress published a report detailing Republican Congressional leadership’s opposition to infrastructure investments even as structural deficiencies in bridges and roadways persist in their home states. Among those is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, where 34 percent of bridges are considered structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.

The Sherman Minton Bridge, one of three major bridges spanning the Ohio River between Louisville, KY and southern Indiana, was among the Kentucky bridges listed as deficient. And last night, the Sherman Minton Bridge was closed after further deficiencies, including cracks, were found in a load-bearing part of its structure. The Louisville Courier-Journal reports:

The Sherman Minton Bridge was closed late Friday afternoon and will remain shut down indefinitely after officials discovered cracks in the span.

But while McConnell insists that Republicans “agree that we must bring America’s infrastructureup to 21st century standards,” his recent record doesn’t show it. When progressives and Democrats argued that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act should be geared toward infrastructure, the GOP under McConnell’s leadership fought to focus it on tax cuts. The Senate GOP derailed a 2010 jobs plan focused largely on infrastructure investment, and if McConnell’s post-speech rhetoric is to be believed, he will be at the forefront of the Republican Party’s opposition to this plan too.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

WASHINGTON -- If you haven't noticed, this is Mitch McConnell's moment. And if you haven't realized it, this won't be the last. In fact, there will be many more, especially if -- as is quite possible -- he becomes Republican majority leader of the Senate after next year's elections.

In what amounted to a victory speech as the final vote approached on the debt ceiling he brokered, the senior senator from Kentucky reached what has been a career-long goal: to be this century's Henry Clay.

Only instead of being Kentucky's "Great Compromiser," McConnell is and wants to be the Bluegrass's "Great Dismantler."

Thursday, July 21, 2011

As you can see in this campaign ad, when he's running for office, Senator Mitch McConnell claims to be the "Godfather of Green." When he votes he supports some of the biggest polluters in Kentucky and around the world even when his own constituents are dying in disproportionate numbers from environmentally related cancers.

In fact, Michael Hendryx, an epidemiologist from West Virginia University has authored a series of studies that link coal mining to poor public health. Hendryx concludes that coal costs Appalachia more in premature deaths that the industry provides in economic benefits. Source: WVGazette.com

Mitch McConnell has received nearly $200,000 (Source: Open Secrets.org)
in campaign contributions from Peabody Energy, one of the world’s biggest coal companies that provides 10% of the nation’s coal used in electrical generation. Source: International Mining

For example, in March 2005. McConnell voted against striking a Bush Administration EPA rule that excluded coal and oil fired electric generating units from the list of major sources of hazardous pollutants under the Clean Air Act’s mercury control parameters which limit mercury admissions into the atmosphere. These dangerous pollutants are released when coal is burned.
Source:http://www.ontheissues.org/domestic/Mitch_McConnell_Environment.htm

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Hear Republican Senators Mitch McConnell, Jeff Sessions and John Kyl fight for the destruction of Medicare even as Kentucky residents suffer disproportionally from stroke and cancer deaths

Along with other residents of the stroke belt (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, Texas and Missouri) all of which happen to dominated by conservative "Red" politics, Kentuckians may also be suffering from increased rates of mental impairment and other forms of cognitive decline. For details read the New York Times Article here.

With 47.99 deaths per hundred thousand, Kentucky ranks 13th in the US for stroke deaths according to the statistics furnished by the Center for Disease Control (CDC).

Kentucky: 6th fattest state in the USAKentucky also comes in 6th in the US for obesity with nearly 32% suffering from this health problem that translates into other dangerous and expensive illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes. What's also shocking is that Kentucky ranks 3rd in the US for kids with obesity in the 10-17 age range.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

OpenSecrets.org is a non-partisan service that provides free information to the public about the influence of money over politics. It details campaign contributions, PAC financial information, lobbying expenditures by business, labor and issues organizations, donor background information and political issues and influence and the voting records of federal elected officials. It's an excellent resource for anyone interested in understanding who pulls the strings behind the scenes.

Mitch McConnell has been an aggressive opponent of President Obama's health care initiative. Could it be due to the generous campaign contributions he's received from health industry giants like Blue Cross-Blue Shield and Humana?

Learn more about Mitch McConnell, Kentucky and other red state failures

About Me

I am a former autoworker who lived through the deindustrialization of the American mid-west and began a second career in media. My daughter recently moved to South Carolina to teach writing and literacy to children there. After I heard her reports on the social conditions in a state long dominated by right wing politicians, I was inspired to develop this blog and others that show the failure of conservative policies in red states like South Carolina, Texas and Kentucky. I was pleased to extensively tour South Carolina and to find that despite the poverty and problems, the working people there are warm and welcoming. I dedicate this effort to them and to all the un and underemployed, to those who've lost jobs, wages and benefits to Republican austerity and to small business people and farmers, who struggle in an ever shrinking North American market.